"Ghosts of the Machine" OOC

[Catffeinated]

Hey, I was thinking of starting this RPG for a while now, and I think I got it down.
It's focused in 3500, in a socity based on computers.
Here's a little insight into the history of the world and the main charicter, Janice Marceil:

Janice Marceil, an average person. She was one of about five thousand people to try a new information delivery system: High Immersion Reality. In HIR the mind is fully immersed in the system, sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. She enjoyed the system, as did the others, however there were bugs in the system. A group of hackers used these bugs to their advantage, the hackers were only known as Terra. Terra is an advanced terrorist group, known for acts against industry, technology, and civilization. Terra's leader, called a "Gia", was peaceful, using traditional boycotting, and other protest techniques... until the old Gia died of old age in 2900. Terra suddenly turned violent, and in the year 3000, attacked the new HIR mainframe, causing a worldwide computer crash. Transport, robots, VR, and HIR were offline for days. Unfortunately, HIR had an unforeseen bug: it's emergency shut off didn't work. Thousands of minds were stuck in HIR, causing their physical selves to go in a coma. Frustrated, world leaders did the only thing they saw fit: blame each other. Life went on for 275 years, until a lying Terra double agent triggered WWIII.
On the war's 174th year, Janice finally awoke from stasis, but different. She was one with the machine; she could enter HIR with no assistance, manipulate computers by thought, and "live" online. There were difficulties though... she couldn't go five days without entering HIR for at least a minute, anything that happened to her in real life effects her online and vice versa, and if forced to log out (by a hacker or site/node security) she dies. She knows the "Ghosts of the Machine"; they are her friends, the dead or unconscious beta testers of the HIR Net. Her years stuck in the HIR Net taught her over a million things about the computer, Internet, and machinery, including the fact that their minds, their souls, have been downloaded into the machine, a blessing and a curse; eternal life, yet in a nonexistent world, as a Ghost of the Machine.
Bent on revenge for her friends and herself, Janice has been searching for Gia ever since she was released from physical and mental therapy.

Also here is a little info on a special group of people called Technomancers:

Janice is what is known as a Technomancer. She is this because of the centuries she spent in the HIR net unconscious. Janice was one of the first to awaken from the event, however there are others.
A Technomancer is adept at anything involving computers. In fact, they can enter the HIR net with only their mind. They can access any node, and are elite hackers.  They can even program sprite programs to assist them. However there are problems: A Technomancer must be online for at least one minute every five days; If harmed, the damage transfers to her in the HIR Net, and vice versa; If anything were to "kill" their avatar, they would "die"; And they never truly die. When a Technomancer is killed, their mind downloads into the HIR Net, causing them to roam it forever.

And a char. sheet for Janice:

Name: Janice Marceil
Age: 478
Gender: Female
Race: Caucasian Human.
Technomancer? Yes
Implants: None
Description: A tall, blond haired human. Very short tempered, and a master of her abilities. Since she is driven by hatred, she is almost always in a bad mood, and always focused on her main goal: Killing Gia.

[techmaster-glitch]

Hmm, Interesting concept, but the execution could use a little work.
Biggest problem, who are we supposed to be? Other technomancers allied with Janice? The "Ghosts"? Ordinary people? Something else we have not mentioned?
What exactly is going to be the premise of the RP? Unfortunately, you won't be able to answer that, and I can't expand, until you answer the above questions.
Needs a little more work. I'm not trying to be a stingy bastard, I would like to see this RP get off the ground, but I see several problems that need some working out.

[Catffeinated]

Other Technomancers or other people, anyone that that would be willing to ally Janice, and don't worry, I'm taking it as constructive criticism.

[techmaster-glitch]

Well, that seems limited. Not much room for originality. What about "Ghosts", or any of the other things mentioned?

But after that, what is the premise? What exactly are we going to be fighting, and how? The Terra agents in the physical or virtual world? Viruses? Other things?

There are also a few other issues I'd like to work out before thinking about posting a character.

[Catffeinated]

We'd be fighting all of the above, but focusing on the Terra agents.
Also, I didn't state the ghosts as a choice mainly because they are always in the Cyberworld, and thusly, can only enter locations with public nodes, while many corprate nodes are "off the grid".

War in the Cyberword is represented by normal weaponry; Guns, knifes, even flails, crossbows, and other archaic and/or nonexistent weapons. However they can contain one of two elements if the programmer wanted: Virus, or Corruption. A Virus weapon is similar to a poison coated knife or dart, unless detected and an anti-virus program started (24-hour offline period), the user starts to suffer physical difficulties in real life. Due to this life-HIR connection, however, Virus weapons are illegal. Corruption weapons, however are legal, yet act much like a Virus weapon, however, it only effects the user's avatar, not their physical self (This is obviously not true for Technomancers).

I am happy to answer any other questions you may have.

[Boog]

Sounds pretty cool. A few questions though. You said ghosts aren't an option because of their inability to switch between worlds. What about robots? There's a corporeal body, and a mind that's already software and thus made for such interactions with this cyberworld. Also, is Janice the only opposition Terra has? Making an RP that primarily centers around one character is sometimes just asking for trouble when the other player characters don't agree with the "protagonist".

[techmaster-glitch]

Speaking of which, I'm thinking of a slight revamp of the storyline as well. Instead of Janice being your character, maybe she could be an NPC (One that you control  of course), and that she isn't actually in the party.
I've got a few more ideas, if you want, I'll PM them to you.

[Catffeinated]

Speaking of which, I'm thinking of a slight revamp of the storyline as well. Instead of Janice being your character, maybe she could be an NPC (One that you control of course), and that she isn't actually in the party.
I've gopt a few more ideas, if you want, I'll PM them to you.

Sure, I'm open to any and all ideas.

What about robots? There's a corporeal body, and a mind that's already software and thus made for such interactions with this cyberworld.

Robots very commonly enter the cyberworld, and commonly mistaken for a normal person... if it wasn't for the fact that their name is their serial number... 

Also, is Janice the only opposition Terra has?

No way. Many mercenaries, individuals, and even governments (assuming they're not too busy with WWIII) are after Terra

[Arcalane]

We'd be fighting all of the above, but focusing on the Terra agents.
Also, I didn't state the ghosts as a choice mainly because they are always in the Cyberworld, and thusly, can only enter locations with public nodes, while many corprate nodes are "off the grid".

You forget the ingenuity and persistance of those on the net. There's always -some- way of accessing a system that can be exploited, even if it requires some meatspace jockey to do a little covert business.

[Catffeinated]

Yes, but a ghost hardly communicates with an actual person or program, unless there was/is some relationship (as a friend, relative, or a necessity to a goal.)

[Arcalane]

See part C. Necessity.

The ghosts, being trapped in the 'Net, would be rather experienced in manipulation and navigation, something those not so used to the 'Net would be. Whilst your average 'technomancer' might be good, there's a significant chance any Ghost would be even better, as they can work on a level hackers and technomancers cannot replicate. They don't need to focus on what their meatspace body is doing, for example.

[Azlan]

My my, this seems so bloody familiar for some reason...

[techmaster-glitch]

Ghosts in the Machine,
Brotherhood of the Machine?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

... Matrix, Ghost in the Shell, ...

[techmaster-glitch]

Names notwithstanding, There really isn't much of a similarity to BOTM other than it's also set in the future.
And actually, I'm alos currently working with Caff to do a little bit of overhauling on the finer aspects of the concept, maybe even rebuilding it from the ground up. In any case, what I'm currently working on really has a little inspiration drawn from .Hack, Digimon, MegaMan NT Warrior, and maybe a dash of Matrix.

Ghost In The Shell...havne't seen much of that show. I've seen one or two episodes, and while it is exactly the kind of thing I'm into, I never commited to watching it.

[lucas marcone]

why draw from cartoons? why not just build your own concept? I might join but i'm worried about streaching my roleplaying out across too many stories.

[techmaster-glitch]

This is mostly Caff's own concept, but with what I'm helping out with is getting just slight dashes of influence from those shows. But only small smidgens. Mostly I'm just building off of Caff's original design.


Even though I haven't been able to do much (I may have more tomorrow) a few of the things I've already sent to Caff is a complete revamp of the janice character, almost everything about her is different; she's an NPC, but the most important one.
The other thing Caff liked was the complete list of "races",
Human/Furre, Technomancer, Cyborg, Robot, Ghost, or S-Program(Sentient Program), and each has it's own strengths and weaknesses, (that's what I'm currently working on)
But there still is more stuff to come to come, so everyone should hold off on posting characters until Caff and I figure the whole thing out.

I do belive that any ideas are very welcome, though.

[Arcalane]

What, no lightbikes?

[techmaster-glitch]

Oh yeah, forgot about Tron...though i only saw that movie once. I think it was awsome, I can't remeber...

[Arcalane]

Don't make me derez you.

[Catffeinated]

Tech, any idea when that sheet will be done?

[techmaster-glitch]

Errmm...I've been very busy lately, and just temporarily lost much of my access to a computer. You'll note that I'm only able to log on for short periods of time now, and that's all I have time to do on my comp. That's how busy I am. But I will get to it as soon as I possibly can.
I am very sorry for the delays.

[Catffeinated]

It's ok, as long as you didn't forget 

[techmaster-glitch]

Just popping in to say that my regular computer access has been restored, though i still won't be able to be on as long and as often as I used to be. I'll get back to work on the infosheets for Ghosts In The Machine soom.